In a sign of more headwinds for Singapore-heavy industrial REITs, the country’s government announced on 4 January that it has seen a 6% contraction in its manufacturing sector for the fourth quarter of 2015.

The contraction came about even as Singapore’s economy grew by 2.0 % on a year-on-year basis in the quarter, better than the 1.8 per cent growth recorded in the previous quarter.

“The manufacturing sector contracted by 6.0% on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter, extending the 5.9% decline in the previous quarter”, said Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

“The sector was primarily weighed down by a decline in the output of the electronics, transport engineering and precision engineering clusters”, the ministry added.

“On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the sector contracted at an annualised rate of 3.1%, following the 3.5% contraction in the preceding quarter”, said the ministry showing data that the Singapore’s manufacturing sector has declined for its fourth straight quarter in a row.